Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week, I recapped episodes 7-8 of Interminable. It’s all about Loy Krathong and some very rotten adoptive siblings.
I also started recapping My Romance Scammer. The set-up is gimmicky, the writing is good, and our two couples are gonna go through it.
What did I watch this week? I’m not bothering with a review, I’m telling you to watch this show:
To The Moon and Back – มาตาลดา – 2023
Currently streaming, down-to-earth, queer soap opera BG romance with 21 episodes.
A young woman with an unusual family moves into the neighborhood and changes the life of a repressed young doctor.
Here’s a link to the trailer (in Thai, because it’s what I could find).
This is a show I’ve wanted to recommend to people for years, but it hasn’t been legally available streaming in English. It’s not all out yet, but it’s finally here, and I’m going to tell you why I love it.
First, there’s the Most Adorable Opposites Attract Couple Ever
So we’ve got Mata, a young illustrator raised by a loving transgender, drag queen father and a gaggle of transgender and gay aunts and uncles. She’s moved to Bangkok on a not-so-secret mission to warm her grandfather’s cold, dead heart. Almost immediately, she spills very hot coffee on a very hot young doctor who lives in the neighborhood.
He’s Pennueng, a dutiful young man from a traditional family that looks perfect on the outside but not perfect on the inside. Living alone, he’s escaped his father’s chokehold of control, but is constantly dragged home for uncomfortable family dinners and to meet some woman he’s supposed to marry.
Yes, the free-spirited woman and the repressed, cold young man are a tale as old as time. But these tropes exist for a reason, and when done with depth, detail, and care, always work on me.
Mata may have a bad habit of stepping into the street without looking, but she’s not always as impulsive as she seems. She has a strong understanding of people and how they work. She always chooses kindness, but that doesn’t mean she accepts cruelty or mistreatment.
Penneung comes off cold, but I think of him as someone deeply uncomfortable with anything outside the role he’s been assigned by his father. At the same time, he’s not happy, and he knows it. But that discomfort makes it hard for him to break free of his rigid life.
They meet and, in unromantic terms, he offers her stability and strength, and she gives him permission to try new things. And it’s very romantic when two people can support each other that way.
Then, there’s everyone else
Many romances use side characters as instruments to guide or throw obstacles in our lovers’ way. That is not the case here.
While I could love this story for the romance alone, it’s the secondary characters that elevate it into something special for me. This is one of those stories that shows love in its many forms, from familial love to deep but entirely platonic friendship.
There’s Mata’s fantastic family, with her deeply sweet and caring father, who is overflowing with empathy for everyone. Maybe even more than her daughter, she recognizes Penneung as someone who just needs a little help and encouragement. I love her scenes with Penneung.
Mata has an Aunt Venus, a transgender woman who adores Mata and her father. Venus is me, free with her anger and a desire to punish those who deserve it, even though Mata and her father never will.
It’s not just about Mata’s family. We meet the nurses and doctors at Penneung’s hospital, some of whom have their own little arcs. But even the most minor ones with no arc of their own feel like they have a story we don’t get to see. They’ve got personality and character.
Then there’s Penneung’s whole mess of a family: his controlling father, his sweet but (maybe deliberately) oblivious mother, her jealous sister, and the lost and confused mess that is his “underperforming” cousin.
And while there are villains here, the writers follow the rule that the villains think they’re the heroes of their own story. They don’t exist only to be horrible. They think they’re doing the right thing. Sometimes, they aren’t even the villain, but the one correctly calling out someone else’s bad behavior.
Many of the actors playing the secondary characters are familiar faces to me. It’s great to get to see them do something more than be evil or comic relief.
I love a soap opera, and this is the most grounded one ever
We’ve got more than one horrible rich family, but no twins or amnesia, and one realistic, shameful secret. We’ve got a poorer family of people who’ve made a place for themselves in a world that tries to reject them. There are messy relationships, betrayals, and fights, but nothing that ever feels like it would be shocking to hear about in real life.
There’s also some truly silly humor and fun drag performances. And almost certainly funding from the Thai government that requires them to showcase the convenience and affordability of Bangkok’s Skytrain.
I love it so much, I forgive it for using the stereotype that curly hair = free spirit.
Finally, the show knows not to sell the idea that everything is perfect, but offers a reassuring, optimistic picture. You may not be able to change the world, but maybe you can find a hot doctor or a cute illustrator and create a wonderful life for yourself and those who want to be a part of it.
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